Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage, Prisoners of Conscience

For peacefully raising a flag, Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage may spend the next decade or more in prison in Indonesia.

On December 1, 2004, some 200 people participated in a nonviolent ceremony outside Abepura in Papua Province during which the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan independence, was raised in commemoration of the declaration of Papuan independence in 1962. The commemoration is celebrated annually by some Papuans. While approximately 200 people took part in the December 1 ceremony, hundreds more local people watched from the edge of the fields.